1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for closing a container and to a container equipped with such a device.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
It is known to make containers for liquid, such as milk bottles made of plastics material, for example high density polyethylene. It is essential that such containers be hermetically closed particularly with a view to their transport from the point of sale to the place of use. To that end, it may be provided to seal the neck of a bottle with a membrane based on aluminum. However, in practice, it proves delicate to remove such a membrane and it is not rare for pieces of this membrane to remain in place on the neck, this rendering use of the container delicate and raising problems during its reprocessing for valorisation, as the residues of aluminum must be treated differently from the body of plastics material. In addition, the known containers tend to leak after the aluminum-based membrane has been removed, i.e. after first use of the fluid that they contain.
Attempts have been made to produce systems for closing bottles without a membrane, particularly by means of screwed stoppers. However, as bottles are most often made by blowing a parison and/or extrusion, relatively great manufacturing tolerances appear at their neck while irregularities cannot always be eliminated at the plan of the juncture in the mold. Such variations in dimensions induce risks of leakage which are not acceptable in practice.
The problems set forth hereinabove are also raised for bottles equipped with a pourer intended to promote flow of a liquid.
Furthermore, it is known from DE-A-1 532 390 to provide a cylindrical skirt on the inner surface of the bottom of a stopper, this skirt being supposed to undergo a centripetal force exerted by a pourer. The tightness obtained with this device cannot be guaranteed, particularly due to the fact that the skirt of the stopper is not rigid but, on the contrary, provided to be deformed.